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Formula 1
Belgian GP
F1 Belgian GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & FP2
Minute-by-minute updates of Formula 1 Friday practice at Spa-Francorchamps
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For the record, air temp is at a chilly 14.8oC with track temp at 19.7oC. So prime Spa weather, if you'd like.
Green flag
Here we go for FP2. Bottas, Raikkonen and Gasly head out straight away – all on the intermediate tyres.
Quote
Bottas over his team radio: "It is a bit too dry for inters so I'll pit." The track looks mostly dry with a couple of wet patches dotted around.
Norris and Vettel also joined the action for an exploratory lap on inters and also duly pit having come to the same conclusion as Bottas. Dry tyres it is.
Pit stop
Norris goes for a race-like pitstop for an instant switch to the hard tyres so he can head back out on the track. The McLaren driver has the freedom of Spa-Francorchamps.
Stopwatch
Norris, on his first timed lap after effectively two out-laps, locks up at La Source but is all fine to continue and complete the lap. A modest 1m48.219s is the first target to beat in FP2.
Both Williams drivers, AlphaTauri's Tsunoda and McLaren's Ricciardo are now out on the track to give Norris some company.
Stopwatch
Russell provides the second lap time of FP2, a 1m51.835s, to go second behind Norris. All cars on track now apart from the Red Bulls and the Mercs so lap times aplenty coming up.
Stopwatch
Norris improves on his overall best with a 1m47.138s as Tsunoda slips into second place with a 1m48.429s using the medium tyres. Nobody has gone out of sync for the soft tyres yet.
Stopwatch
Leclerc's 1m47.149s puts him fractionally off top spot behind Norris - all 20 cars are on the track now so things are getting busy.
A brief yellow flag pops up on the timing screen but quickly disappears which makes it tricky to know who caused it. Elsewhere on the circuit Sainz has a lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Stopwatch
Latifi goes quickest! The Williams driver puts in a 1m46.198s on the mediums.
Stopwatch
Ah, well not for long as Bottas, quickest in FP1, returns to top spot with a 1m44.513s on the medium tyres. That's faster than his morning efforts.
Bottas retains top spot as team-mate Hamilton slots into second with Verstappen in third. The Red Bull driver is over 0.6s off the Mercedes drivers despite being on the same compound of tyres. Bit of an engine turn down creating the difference?
Sun
Tsunoda loses a lap for track limits at Les Combes, while the timing screen provides an update of "normal grip conditions" with the rain staying away.
The TV director joins Alonso on a lap using the helmet camera. It is a brutal and shaky experience so we can only imagine what it is like actually in the cockpit.
Yellow flag
A yellow flag pops up in sector two for a very short period but no further trouble is reported. Elsewhere it is soft tyre time with plenty of drivers switching to the softest compounds.
Stopwatch
Russell is the first to put in a soft tyre lap of 1m46.665s to go P13. Both Mercedes drivers, Alonso, Latifi and Stroll are also on the softs.
Hamilton doesn't improve on his first timed effort on the softs, 0.3s down, so he remains in second place. He lost most of the time in that lap in the first and final sectors where power is king, so the engine mode could be slightly lower.
Stopwatch
Alonso, fresh from agreeing his 2022 F1 contract extension at Alpine, is one who does improve on the softs with a 1m44.953s to slot into fourth place.
Right, Verstappen's turn for a flying lap on the softs. What has the Red Bull driver got?
Stopwatch
And Verstappen goes fastest with a 1m44.472s - just 0.041s quicker than Bottas, despite being on the softs, while the Finn set his time on the hards.
Yellow flag
Ocon has spun at Turn 14, between Les Fagnes and Stavelot, and comes to a halt facing the wrong way. The Alpine driver is able to avoid the barriers and get going again but his tyres are totally done.
Ocon had been pushing on his qualifying simulation run and makes it back to the pits after his spin.
Red flag
Leclerc has crashed! That has red flagged the session!
Crash
Leclerc got a bit too eager on the power exiting Les Combes and as his Ferrari got out of control he tried to correct it but could not avoid clipping his left-front wheel into the outside barriers. The Ferrari driver is OK and hops out of the car to assess the damage.
Green flag
The session will resume at 15:50 local time (so now, basically).
That provides the 19 remaining drivers with 10 minutes of practice time left for today. Race runs will be the order of the short and sharp period of action.
Is it helmet camera or visor camera? Either way, we're back on it with Alonso and it really shows how steep the climb is between Eau Rouge and up to the Kemmel straight. Mental.
Red flag
Verstappen has spun and there's another red flag!
Crash
The Red Bull driver has come a cropper a little further on from where Leclerc had his earlier off - so much so that you can see the parked Ferrari in the background. Verstappen has spun at Malmedy and tapped the barrier - that's the session over.
Checkered flag
With this session not being resumed, it means Verstappen does take top spot in FP2 ahead of Bottas and Hamilton.
So a very eventful session, a spin for Ocon and separate crashes for Leclerc and Verstappen which caused two red flags. It all adds to the intrigue for the rest of this weekend.
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